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MIMES OF ENGLISH POETS 



OF THE Xixra CENTUBY. 



DI8ERTATIO 

QUAM SCRIPSIT 
ET 

PRO SUMIS I PBILOSOPHIA HOKORIBUS 

OBTINENDIS 

AMPLISSIMO PHILOSOPHORUM 

ORDINI 
IN UNIVERSITATE LITERARUM ROSTOCHIENSI 

PROPOSUIT 

GUSTAVUS BARTLING 

GUESTPHALUS. ^ Z. 



- 




: 



BARMENAE 1874. 
TYPIS WAKDT. 



A 



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V .V 



^ 



„Because it also suits my rhymes." 
Byron. 

The poet of times past long ago, complaining, to 
make use of his own expression, of that „dira necessitas 
metri* intends to hint at all those difficulties, arising to 
him from the quantity of the vowels in each particular 
word, and increasing from the fluctuation of this particular 
word itself (produced by declension for instance), as well 
as from the influence exerted over the last syllable of this 
word by the consonants or vowels beginning the following 
one. As to the poets of many nations of modern times, 
there has come out by and by another difficulty, which, 
if not of equal importance , yet , when not sufficiently 
looked too, may greatly contribute to derogate enormously 
from the beauties aimed at in composing a poetical pro- 
duction. The difficulty alluded to consists, since rhymes 
have become almost an indispensable accessory to poesy, 
in the correctness of the rhyme itself. Ehymes have 
become an indispensable accessory to poesy we repeat; 
for they are to be met with in every kind of poetical 
compositions, not even excepting dramatical ones; in 
maintaining, however, that the very rhymes form part 
of the essence of poetry, we of course do not intend 



to deny, that there may be, and that there is really 
plenty of poesy without rhymes, and on the contrary, 
that there are litterary productions enough with the most 
accomplished rhymes without the least claim to the name 
of poesy at all. But as it is not our task to inquire, how 
far poetry 'stands in need of rhymes, we cannot be expected 
here to expose, what beauties may be got, what effects 
may be brought about by them, but must to get nearer 
the point, examine what there is to be understood by 
a good, a correct, a sonorous rhyme. 

Considering the word rhyme in its universal meaning 
we agree it to represent the consonance existing between 
the last word or the last words of two ore more verses. 
This consonance, however, rests not upon an absolute con- 
formity or rather identity of those words, but requires 
that a certain difference exists, that both these words 
must not be the same, let the likeness be ever so great 
between them. The conformity between the words which 
represent a rhyme, must be thus, that the vowels together 
with the following consonants in both verses are the same 
or nearly the same, while the difference exists for the con- 
sonants preceeding the first rhyming vowels. Notwith- 
standing this diversity of the preceeding consonants, the 
consonance of the rhyming words is harmonic and can be 
harmonic only, if especially the vowels in their sound, 
their quantity and accentuation are reconciled in such 
a manner as to offer a likeness agreeable to the ear. The 
harmony required is not gained, when the rhyming 
syllables are only similar or assonant, when the vowels 
are of unequal quantity or have a different accentuation, 



when the consonants, connected with these vowels differ 
materially in their pronouncing. 

Now, in the English language of the present century, 
there manifests itself the bias for rhyming those words 
which, though sometimes resemblent to one another in 
spelling, differ greatly in their pronouncing. This fact is 
to be imputed to the circumstance, thath both the spelling 
and pronouncing of these words must have been and have 
been the same or nearly the same some centuries ago. 
But while the pronunciation of such words has undergone 
in the course of times various changes, these changes have 
not been the same ; circumstances have given to one word 
a pronunciation quite different from that of another word 
which, in those times gone by, was agreeing with the 
first; so far that two words, which, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury perhaps, were apt to form a rhyme, from the likeness 
of their pronunciation, have become so different that we 
hardly would believe them to be able to do so now-a-days. 
However, the consciousness of the former likeness in the 
pronunciation of those words has continued steady, and 
has outlived the former pronunciation itself by the memory 
of, and the close acquaintance with the immortal poems 
of ancient authors as well as by the endeavours of modern 
poets, not to commit to oblivion anything which might 
be able to give larger scope to the expression of the 
poetical thought. For to prove, that this last circumstance 
has not been insignificant with regard to the retaining 
of all rhymes of this kind, we need only say that, the 
greater the difference is in pronouncing one and the same 
vowel, or the more divers sounds are existant of one 



6 

vowel, the less we are able to find a sufficient series of 
words of quite the same sound. Especially for the English 
language this motive must have been of importance, since 
the difference of the same vowel in its pronouncing in 
sundry words has reached a degree not to be surpassed in 
any other modern language. We may, therefore, pretend 
that the motive of retaining such rhymes must be attributed 
if not to the inclination of imitating the ancient poets, 
at least to the necessity of enlarging the limits, which 
would be drawn too nariow by a strict observation and 
clinging to those words which, in consequence of the like- 
ness of their sound, alone would be able to form a rhyme. 
In the subsequeut a sufficient number of examples will be 
produced in order to prove how far these principles, with 
regard to the rhyming of words, whose vowels differ in 
pronunciation, have been carried through. 

To begin with the vowel a. The first sound of this 
vowel, to be represented by a 1 — adopting the usual 
manner of printing — is found to form the rhyme with 
almost all other sounds of the same vowel and the sounds 
of the vowel e. To the words waste, place, embrace, 
haste, chase, safe and to the participles and imperfect tenses 
ivasted, placed, embraced, chased are the corresponding 
rhymes of Lord Byron: cast, overcast, last, blast, pass, 
fast, half, blasted, passed with the sound a 2 . (Childe 
Harold III, 44, Don Juan III, 63, IV, 54, VII, 36, VIII, 7, 
X, 48, XII, 69, XVI, 48.) Scott rhymes in the same 
manner haste with cast (Lady of the Lake VI), Elisabeth 
Browning haste and ivaste with last and fast (Rhyme of 
the Duchess May). In Shelley's poems are the rhymes to be 



found waste: cast (Revolt of Islam III, 12), placed: last 
(ibid. IV, 2), embraced: cast (ibid. VI, 54), taste and 
haste: past (Epipsychidion). Wordsworth has similar 
rhymes; even Keats in whose poems such poetical licenses 
are to be met with comparatively seldom, rhymes chaste 
with last. (St. Agnes' Eve XXI.) Tennyson avoids such 
rhymes, at least to our knowledge, entirely. 

Rarely, on the contrary, this sound a 1 is to be found 
to form the rhyme to a*, and not excepting even some 
few rhymes as for instance place : teas, in a poem of Elis. 
Browning (The lost bower) and scathe: wrath (Byron, 
Parisiua), we may conclude, that the difference of those 
sounds appears even to the English to be too great, as to 
encourage a poet to make use of such a rhyme. 

Innumerable instances further prove, that a 4 must be 
regarded appropriate for rhyming with a 1 . Even Keats 
rhymes pains with fans (Enclymion). The word have, both 
infinitive and present tense, is hardly anywhere else to be 
found but rhyming with words, whose vowel is a 1 . In 
Wordsworth's poems it rhymes with grave and ivave; in 
Shelley's with slave and grave (Prince Athanase), in Elis. 
Browning's with wave, brave, and oftentimes with grave 
(Romount of the Page, Rhyme on the Duch. May, Bertha 
in the Lane). — Thomas Moore too has grave, crave and 
slave rhyming with have (Irish Melodies II nd - Nr. ibid. 
Rhymes on the Road Ext. II and ibid. Ext. VIII); Scott 
and Byron brave, gave, grave (Scott, Lady of the Lake 
III and IV; Harold the Dauntl. I. — Byron, Childe Har. 
Ill, 48, IV, 89, Don Juan IX, 19, Lament of Tasso, 
Prophecy of Dante) and even Tennyson does not disdain 



8 

the last word as a rhyme to have. The participle having 
rhymes with enslaving (Th. Moore, Little's Poems, Love 
and Marriage) and in Lord Byron's poems with ivaving 
and raving (Don Juan III, 30). 

Other examples of a 1 rhyming with a 4 are the 
following: shape: lap (Shelley, Eevolt of Islam III, 31), 
made: had (ibid. II, 25). Face: grass (Elis. Browning, 
Komance of the swan's nest), face: glass (ibid. Khyme of 
the Duchess May), place : grass (ibid. Bertha in the Lane). 

Byron rhymes overtaken with slacken (Deformed trans- 
formed), places: masses (Morg. Magg.), undertake with 
black and slack (ibid.), state and date with that (Proph. 
of Dante IV), base and place with as (Vision of Judgm.), 
decorate : hat (Don Juan VI, 14), tame : lamb (ibid. Ill, 
32), faint: pant (Deform. Transform.). Longfellow rhymes 
the words space and face with bass (The Occupation of 
Orion, The Golden Legend). 

Not less nnmerous than the preceeding are the rhymes 
in which a 1 corresponds to the vowel, which is represented 
by the signe e 2 . Tennyson, for instance, rhymes age with 
hedge (Amphion), strain with men, haste and waste with 
jest (Death of the old Year) ; made and shade with said, 
spread, dread, head, dead (The two voices). 

Byron rhymes the words change, exchange, strange, 
range with revenge (Lara 11, 8, Prophecy of Dante, Vis. 
of Judgm., Morg. Magg.), changed with avenged (Siege 
of Corinth 21), chaste with best (Don Juan 1, 67), made 
with spread (ibid. Ill, 69), taste with confess d (ibid. VI, 
17), main with again and men (ibid. Vll, 31), quaint 
and saint with spent (Juan Xlll, 65), pain with den and 



men (Proph. of Dante) ; graven with heaven (ibid.); saints 
with contents (Yis. of Judgm.); unveil' d with beheld (Bride 
of Abydos) ; faith with breath (Corsair 111, 17); the same 
word with death (Juan 11, 76, and ibid. IV, 42) ; page and 
age with allege (Vis. of Juclgm.). — Scott uses to the 
words made, shade, blade the corresponding rhymes head, 
dead, spread (for inst. : Last Minstr. Introd., Marmion V? 
VI, Lord of the Isles IV); to saint: bent (Last Minstr. Ill), 
to haste: guest (Marmion VI), to misplaced: guest (Lady 
of the L.), to gale: threat (Bridal), and so on. 

Elisabeth Browning proves the same by the rhyme 
reck to saJce (Rhyme of the Duch. May), Shelley by the 
word neck rhyming with shake (Revolt of Islam 1, 8), 
Bryant by the same word neck rhyming with spake (The 
African chief); Burns offers among others taste to blest 
(Despondency). 

At last, and not at all scarcely, there occur to the 
reader rhymes, in which the sound a 1 corresponds to the 
sound e 1 . With the word break rhymes streak (Words- 
worth, Evening walk), weak, cheek and speak (Eelic. 
Hemans, Forest Sanct. X, ibid. LX1, ibid. Last Con- 
st antine L1V). The same rhymes are to be found in 
Byron (Proph. of Dante), Shelley (Marianne's Dream), 
Scott (Last Minstr., Marmion, Lady of the Lake). Shelley 
has moreover wake: speak (Revolt of Isl. Vll, 2), haste: 
feast (Ginevra). Byron rhymes enibrace with peace (Hours 
of Idleness, to Emma), escapes with heaps (Juan 1, CXX1V). 
— In a poem of Coleridge, inscribed Lewti, heave rhymes 
with tvave. — Scott affords the examples: great: defeat 
(Lord of the Isles IV), gate: seat (Rockeby 11), and (Last 



10 

Minstr. IV) gait: seat, mate: feat (Rockeby 111), sake: 
tveak (Harold the Dauntless 1), lake: weak (Lady of the 
Lake). Moore rhymes veil with steal (Little's Poems, to 
Rosa), veiVd with conceal' d (ibid., Nature's Labels) and 
veil with conceal (Odes of Anacr. XVI). If any, the above 
cited words, streak, tveak, speak, feast, peace, heap, defeat, 
seat, conceal, a. so o. used as rhymes to break, tvaJce, haste, 
embrace, mate, eseape, great, gate, sake, lake, prove that 
this vowel e 1 , if represented by the characters ea, is still 
to be regarded as entirely apt for rhyming with a 1 , re- 
presented by a and ea, since the eye of the reader is 
satisfied by the likeness of the characters, which in other 
words, as for instance : great, break, are really pronounced 
ike a 1 . This fact is corroborated by the circumstance 
that of other words, with the sound e 1 but of an other 
spelling and origin there are hardly any to be found 
rhyming with a 1 . The only instance of this last kind we 
have been able to hit upou, affords Burns in the poem: 
The cotter's Saturday night, in which theme rhymes with 
name. 

A 2 which we have seen already to correspond to a 1 , 
rhymes further with that long a which is modified by a 
following r (the French e ouvert). 

Coleridge rhymes are with care (Lewti), fair (Od 
to the rain), air (Ancient Mariner V), there (ibid., VII), 
where (ibid. The pains of sleep); heart with desert (ibid. 
Happy Husband). Elisabeth Browning: star: fair (Lady 
Geraldine's Courtship. Shelley: heart: wert (Revolt of 
Islam, Introd. 7, and: To a Skylark), star: were (Revolt 
of Islam I, XL). Scott exhibits guard: fared (Lady of 



11 

the Lake IV), guard: prepared (ibid. V), guard: shared 
(ibid. VI), heart and part: ivert and assert (Lord of the 
Isles IV, Rockeby IV, Bridal). Byron rhymes eard with 
conferrd (Don Juan IX, 46), bard, hard and guard with 
prepared often (for inst. : Don Juan 1, 21, ibid. Xll, 13, 
Childe Har. 11, 12, Corsair 1, 14), are with spare (Do- 
mestic pieces), march and arch with research (Don Juan 
XV, 25). — The same a 2 rhymes further with a 3 , for the 
words star, bar, far, are, scar, mar, pass, path continually 
correspond to war, was, wrath (Tennyson, L'envoy; Byron, 
Childe Harold 111, 25, 111, 47, 111, 84, IV, 16, IV, 51, IV, 
101, IV, 147, Corsair 11, 6, Lara 11, 23, The Island IV, 12, 
Don Juan IV, 107), harm, arm and charm are in the 
same manner analogous to warm (Don Juan 11, 114, IV* 
13, IV, 41), even o is not excluded, barb: absorb (Byron, 
Don Juan II, 6) and Tennyson, Campbell, Moore and 
Byron do not hesitate in rhyming charm and arm wiuh 
form, inform, ivorm, storm. Exceptional cases, however, 
are the following, in which a 2 rhymes with e 1 , as fast: 
east (Wordsworth, The Russian fugitive), path: wreath 
(ibid. Eccles. Son. Ill, 45). 

A 3 has been taken notice of already rhyming with a 1 
and a 2 ; yet, when the employing of this sound in the 
said cases has been seen to be comparatively insignificant, 
the more are the instances in which the same sound 
rhymes with a 4 and e 2 . Shelley rhymes tvrath with death 
(Revolt of Islam Vlll, 6) and has (Triumph of Life), was 
with grass (Rev. of Islam 3); Elisab. Browning all with 
shall (Sonnets : Work) and call with shall (Calls on the 
Heart) ; Burns tvrath : death (A Prayer), all : fell (John 



12 

Barleyco n), want: lent (Grace before dinner). — The 
following, water: matter, hall: shall, want: grant, fall: 
shall, water: scatter and flatter, was: class, ivatches, 
matches, what: that, small: shall, ivas: as and has, tvhat: 
chat, watch: despatch, walk: attack, was, ass and mass, 
ivant: cant, tvhat: fat,ivatch: thatch and catch, are rhymes 
often occuring especially in poems of Lord Byron (Childe 
Harold 11, 51; 11, 37; 111, 32; 111,116; IV, 44. Lara 11, 6. 
Don Juan 11, 3; 11, 34; 11, 175; 111, 45; IV, 63; IV, 107 
VI, 3; Vll, 8; Vll, 46 ; Vlll, 29; IX, 29; IX, 57; IX, 61 
X, 52; X, 56; XI, 44; XI, 54; Xll, 1; XU, 51 
Xll, 59; Xlll, 16; XIV, 30; XIV, 88; XV, 16 
XV, 41; XV, 43; XVI, 6; XVI, 114, a. s. o.). That 
even the sound e 1 is not wholly excepted here, proves the 
rhyme war: ear (Shelley, Prince Athanase) and that a 3 
without hesitancy corresponds to o is by the likeness of 
the sound a matter of course; rhymes, therefore, like was: 
cross, ivas: toss, what: forgot, ivar: shore, ivas: applause, 
wars: doors (Browning, Coleridge, Longfellow) a. s. o., 
contain nothing whereby to surprise the reader. 

Paying attention now to the sounds represented by 
the characters e 1 and i 2 there is in the first place to be 
remarked, that the difference in quantity is neglected in 
rhymes like the following: dream: him (Tennyson, In 
memor. LV), need: hid (Scott, Last Minstr. 11), field: kilVd 
(Byron, Don Juan XIII, 88), yield : huild (ibid, the Island), 
fields : guilds (ibid. Proph. of Dante). Then, remembering 
at the same time, that we have hit already upon this 
sound e 1 , rhyming with a 1 and, less frequently, to be sure, 
with other sounds of a, the fact is striking, how copious 



13 

the rhymes are in which e 1 (e, i, ea, ee, ie) is put 
together with e 2 (e, ea). To cite only part out of the 
vast number, Scott: feast: guest, priest: crest, hid: red, 
sheath: death, hiss cl: breast, heath: breath (all taken from 
The Last Minstr.), least: jest, beneath: death and breath 
(Marmion), beach: stretch (Lord of the Isles IV), wit: 
yet, undid: head (Rockeby), dippd: Jcept, list: press d, 
hid: thread (Bridal), need: the lead, resist: breast (Har. 
the Dauntl.), ridge: hedge (Field of Wat), — Robert 
Browning rhymes wreath with breath (Christmas-Eve and 
East. Day IV); Rogers least: rest (Human life), Words- 
worth least: breast (White Doe of R.), heath: breath (The 
Brownie's Cell); Shelley east: nest (Epipsych.), to lead: 
spread (Adonais), feet: yet a. s. o. Felicia Hemans 
sheath : death (Aiaric in Italy), wreath : breath (A Poet's 
dying hymn); Elisabeth Browning reed: head (The lost 
bower), steed: spread (Rhyme of the Duch. May), teeth 
and sheath: death (Romount of the Page, and Rhyme of 
the Duch. May), cheek: neck (ibid.), reed: spread (A Reed). 
— With the words death and breath rhyme beneath, 
bequeath, breathe, heath, wreath, underneath, sheath more 
or less in the works of almost all the modern poets. 
Likewise is heaven, eleven, seven rhymed exclusively with 
riven, driven, given, forgiven, even, shriven, uneven, striven 
(Bryant, Moore, Scott, Burns, Byron, Tennyson, Poe, 
Longfellow). Coleridge rhymes river with sever, Poe and 
Longfellow with ever. To quiver, river, shiver, liver, deliver 
corresponds in the poems of Byron ever, clever, never; to 
feast : rest, seen : then, deem : them, beads : sheds, reveaVd : 
beheld, teat: yet, reach 1 d: strctclid, unseaTd: beheld, either: 



14 

together. The word evil rhymes with devil and level (also 
in the poems of Poe, Scott, Longfellow). Tennyson affords 
among other instances the rhymes feet: eoverlet, mist: 
breast. 

Frequent enough, though not in the least attaining 
to the abundance of the preceeding case are the rhymes 
in which e 1 corresponds to that sound of e, a, ai, ea, 
known by the French e ouvert. Tear (noun), year, ear 
rhyme with where, care, stair, bear (Keats, Lamia II, ibid. 
Isab. V, ibid. Eve of St. Agnes XVII), appear d: fared 
(ibid. Lamia I.) Rogers rhymes year, tear (noun), hear 
with wear and there (Captivity, Human Life), Wordsworth : 
clear: air (Poems of the Fancy XXII); fear: hair y 
there and rare, year: fair, sphere, here and near: bear 
occasionally. Byron, E. Browning, Longfellow, Tennyson 
exhibit the following rhymes: appear d: fared, years: 
theirs, to hear: wear, bear and were; near, sphere, fear, 
clear, compeer, here, dear, beard a. s. o. are opposite to 
bear, sivear, there, hair, care, dare, declare, forbear, spare, 
declared, spared. (Byron, Childe Harold I, 43 ; Giaur ; 
Don Juan IV, 41, V, 98; Bride of Abyd. II, 6. Elisab. 
Browning, Rhyme of the Duch. May. Longfellow, Sunrise 
on the Hills, The Golden Legend. Tennyson, The Miller's 
daughter.) 

Still less frequent, though regularly as to some words, 
are the rhymes, in which e 1 harmonizes to that souud of e 
and ea, which is modified by a following r. Shelley, for 
instance, rhymes heard with reared (R. of Islam IV, 34), 
Keats with endear d (Ode on a Grec. Urn), Byron with 
clear d (Ch. H. I, 72), appear d (Lara I, 14), disappear d 



15 

(Siege of Cor., 33) with feard and sneer d (Don Juan). 
Scott and Wordsworth rhyme the same word with appear 'd, 
beard, reard, feard, steered (Scott, Last Minstr. V, Lady 
of the Lake III, Rockeby III). Other examples of the 
same kind are fierce: universe (Moore, Lalla Jiookh), pierce: 
hearse (Scott, Marm.), dearly: early (Poe, To my mother). 
A number of poets further do not scruple at rhyming 
i 1 with the diphtong represented by oi and oy. Campbell 
rhymes shrine, tivine, mine, ivind with join and joind 
(Theodoric, Gertrude of Wyoming III, 21, Lines writ, at 
the req. of the Hightl, Society in Lond., Hallowed Ground) ; 
W T ordsworth smile with toil (Miscell. Sonnets III, 12), 
entivined, hind, mind with joined (At the grave of Burns ; 
Poems dedic. to National Independence, Part. II, 28 ; The 
white doe of Kylst. IV, ibid. VII); Keats aivhile with 
foil (Endymion II), smile with coil (The cap and bells 
LXIII), vile, isle, beguile and smile with toil (Endymion II, 
ibid. Ill, Miscell. poems: To the Nile, ibid. Written after 
visiting Fingars cave) ; Eogers line and devine with join 
(The Sailor; To a voice that had been lost), shine with 
sirloin (Human life). — Shelley, Felic. Hemans, Long- 
fellow, Bryant and Rob. Browning avoid, for aught we 
know at least, entirely rhymes of this kind. Elisabeth 
Browning has only once joined in rhyming with grinding 
(Song for the ragged schools of Lond.); Coleridge the two 
passages mind: joined (Poems, writ. i. early youth, Kisses) 
and eye: joy (ibid. Sonnet II). In the poems of Th. Moore also 
such rhymes are to be encountered seldom, however he does 
not wholly reject them, for the evidence of which the passages 
and J: enjoy (Little's Poems, An Argument) and eye: joy 



16 

(ibid. Song to . .). — Tennyson too affords the two rhymes 
tvind: joirid and high: boy. Byron, however, employs al- 
ready a larger number of such rhymes, as for instance : 
smile: toil (often), while: soil, defiled: soiled, shines: 
coins, vice: choice, aisle: soil, child: spoiTd, combined: 
joined, smiled : coiled, isle : spoil, unkind : rejoin d, replies : 
voice, hvice: voice. — The poets who most mate use of 
this kind of rhymes are Burns and Scott. The former 
has apart from most of the rhymes already mentioned, as 
follows: despise: joys, vile: toil, die: employ ; spy, eye, hie 
and sky: joy, child: foiVd (Despondency; Man was made 
to mourn; New year's day; Address to Edinburgh; To 
Clarinda ; John Barleycorn ; The Lass of Ballochm). With 
the latter are frequent: supplied: void, high: boy, smile: 
broil, mile and while: toil, emprize: boys, behind and 
assign d: joined, lines: joins, sky: toy, isle: boil, a. s. o. 
(Last Minstr. Introd., ibid. Ill, IV, Marmion 1, V, VI, Lord 
of the Isles VI, Bridal of Trierm. Introd., ibid. 11, Harold 
the Dauntl. Ill, Battle of Sempach). — A greater difference 
even than that, proved already to be reconciled between the 
long and short sounds of a is to be remarked with regard to 
the rhymes in which e 1 and i 2 corresponds to i\ With 
some words the pronouncing of i 2 like i 1 has become in 
rhymes quite a rule; we need only quote the noun the 
tvind, which without any exception rhymes with behind, 
mind, blind, a. s. o. From other such rhymes there are 
to be cited especially the verbs to live and to give, rhyming 
in the poems of Byron with revive, survive, contrive and 
strive (Proph. of Dante; Childe Harold 111, 30, and ibid. 
IV, 33) with alive (Scott, Bridal 11), with survive (Felic. 



17 

Hero an s, the Maremna), with strive (ibid. Arab. Stuart), 
with revive (ibid. Properzia Rossi), with contrive (Rob. 
Browning, Easter Day IV and ibid. Dr. Rom., A Gram, 
funeral), with drive (ibid. East. Day XI); with arrive 
(Shelley, Epipsych.), with shrive (Keats, Isab. Vlll.) But 
that this license is not considered as to be granted easily 
nor to be worth of being imitated in poetry is proved by 
the rareness of other rhymes of this kind, of which, having 
made strict scrutiny, we can only bring in the following 
passages, strife and life rhyming with grief (Shelley, Prince 
Athan.), price: edifice (Rob. Browning, Christm. Eve X), 
nice: precipice (Scott, Lady of the L.), ice: precipice 
(Byron, The Island IV and Don Juan X, 76), quite: 
favourite (ibid. Ill, 36). Tennyson, Burns, Longfellow, 
Poe, Moore, Coleridge, Rogers, Campbell, Bryant, Macaulay 
avoid these rhymes by all means. 

A particular notice now must be taken of the 
character y at the end of adverbs and nouns (abstracts). 
Here again the fact is plainly perspicuous that, though 
the sound in actual pronouncing has changed considerably, 
in comparison of the former, — and for the worse cer- 
tainly, since an almost unintelligible sound has been sub- 
stituted for the full emphatic one — still, for the sake 
of the same spelling, this insignificant sound lays claim 
to the right of rhyming with the euphonic i 1 on account 
of the identity of both characters as to the eye. — In 
the poems of Tennyson we chance upon the rhymes die: 
melody, shy: tenderly, eye: silently, shy: gallery, dry: 
melody, fly: mistery, by: chastity, I: sympathy, replies: 
mysteries (Claribel; The Miller's daughter ; Fatima ; Palace 



18 

of Art; Dream of Fair Women; Blackbird; The two 
voices, a. s. o.) In the works of Lord Byron the number 
of such rhymes surpasses expectation. Some of the most 
striking are the adverbs fervently, incessantly, warily, inglo- 
riously, fittingly, heavily, earnestly, silently, unpleasantly, 
furiously, probably, pitcously, a. s. o. corresponding to 
sigh, eye, sJcye, by, I, reply, nigh and other words with 
the sound i 1 ; the nouns — by far more frequently to be 
found — chivalry, victory, majesty, nobility, canopy, dignity, 
liberty, eternity, reality, deity, immortality, harmony, enemy, 
a. s. o. rhyming with the above quoted and other words 
of the same pronouncing like why, high, tie, vie deny, cry, 
espy, lie, try, supply. — The same rhymes now and 
others of a similar kind are made use of more or less 
by all poets, who have been taken notice of here, and 
there is not one who by avoiding such rhymes implies his 
disapproving of them. An abuse, however, and a trans- 
gression even of poetical license, must be termed the 
circumstance that the same liberty, usurped for the long 
sound of i 1 — viz. its rhyming with oi and oy — is 
vindicated also for this not accented y at the end of words. 
For, when Scott rhymes boy with merrily (Last Minstr. 1). 
or joy with victory and agony (Lord of the Isles V) ; no- 
body would be able of asserting, that the expression of a 
poetical idea could be improved by means of such a rhyme; 
an opinion, strengthened by the non-occurrance of the like 
passages in the works of almost all the poets hitherto cited. 
Turning now to .the various sounds of o and u, we 
discover in the first place a great many rhymes in which 
the short sound o 4 answers to the long sound o 1 and to 



19 

that sound of oa, ou and o\v drawing nearer to a 3 . Rogers 
rhymes tost with coast (Ode to supers!.); Wordsworth crost 
and tost with coast and boast (Ecclesiatic Sonnets, Part 1, 
5 ; and ibid. Part 11, 25), trod with load (Poems compos, 
during a tour in the sum. of 1833, Vll), lot, cot and note 
with sought, brought and float (Eccles. Sonnets, Part 1, 18 ; 
and ibid. 40 ; Guilt and Sorrow 72 ; Miscellan Sonnets 
111, 42); Bryant lost with coast Hymn to the N. Star) — 
the same rhyme in Fel. Hemans — spot and not with 
fought and wrought (The murd. travell., The African 
chief.) ; Macaulay host and post with coast (The Armada, 
Battle of the Lake Keg. XXIII) ; Coleridge groan : one 
(Anc. Mar. Ill), groan: shone (Ode to the dep. year IV). 
— Tennyson rhymes afloat: wot, soul: toll, coast: host 
and lost, boast: most, a. s. o. Longfellow: coast: host and 
post, boast: lost, road: abode (The Slave sing, at midn. — 
The w r arden of the cinq. p. — Copl. de Manriq.) As there 
is no great difficulty to be overcome in accomodating these 
sounds we shall be contented with citing only some few 
passages more, taken from the poems of Byron, Scott and 
Burns; lost: boast, alone: gone, abroad: god, boast: cost, 
soul: toll, road: trod, boat: shot, bowl: troll, bought: not, 
nought: shot, blown: won, moan: shone, load: abode, float: 
sot, broadly: godly, broke: rock, thrown: shone, goaded: 
boded, abroad: odd. — Though a greater constraint must 
be put on correct pronouncing in assimilating o (both 
short and long) to o 2 (u 3 ), yet rhymes, joining both these 
vowels, are employed not scarcely. Bryant rhymes flowed 
with wood (An Ind. at the bur. pi. of h. f.) ; Elis. Browning 
low with through (Romount of the Page) and god and road 



20 

with would (Bertha in the Lane). Longfellow presents the 
rhymes tvhole: cool (Black knight), home: bloom (The blind 
girl of C. C). Poe: more: sure (The conq. worm). Shelley: 
gloived: stood (Triumph of Life) Scott: showed: ivood 
(Rock. II), grove: move (Lord of the Isles IV). Tennyson 
offers the rhymes more: poor, grove: move, hopes: droops, 
alone: moon. By far the greatest number of passages as 
to others, to this license too, is offered by Byron. Rhymes 
like more : poor, home and from : room, bonds : the wounds, 
bestow 9 d: mood, groiv: through, shone: moon, ago and foe: 
who, hioiv: Uvo, home: whom, are in his poems to be 
encountered occasionally. 

With some words there manifests itself further 
a predilection for rhyming the sounds o 2 and u 2 . The 
most conspicuous among these are prove, move (moved, 
moving, proved, proving) and their compounds approve, 
improve, to be met with, rhyming with love, loved, loving, 
belove, above, in rather frequent a number. From other 
such rhymes we may cite womb and tomb corresponding 
to come, boometh: cometh, moon: one (Tennyson), gloom: 
come (Longfellow), doom and tomb: some (Byron). From 
all sounds of o and u there is in the whole none which 
in rhyming, is able to assimilate itself in so large an 
extension to other sounds as the sound u 2 . Come and 
become, for instance, rhyme with home, dome, roam, foam, 
gloom, ivhom, room, tomb in poems of almost all modern 
writers; love and above in the same manner rhyme with 
throve, dove, strove, ivove, glove, grove, rove, prove, move; 
trouble with noble (Byron, Deform. Transform, and Don 
Juan II, 73) ? drum: home (ibid. Don Juan XI, 26) ? 



21 

return, .burn and urn with mourn and bourne (Scott, 
Burns, Byron), enough, with proof and roof (Byr, Morg. 
Magg.). One of the most striking words, and the most 
frequently occurrent too, is blood, which together with 
bud, mud, but, shut harmonizes with words of almost 
all the various sounds of o and u, so with rod and god 
(Tennyson), with good, wood, hood (hardihood, womanhood) 
stood (understood), food, flood, foot, should, wood, feud, 
rude, sued, brood, renew d and even with oived (Scott,. 
Lady of the Lake II). 

Not paying now closer attention to the less important 
diversities of pronunciation, as for instance offered by the 
heterogeneousness of u 1 and u 3 {duke: look, rebuke: brook r 
solitude: wood, mute: foot, a. s. o.) we needs must regard 
one license more, which as well by the greater difference 
of actual pronouncing as by its frequent occurrence greatly 
surprises the reader, viz: that license of rhyming the 
sounds of o and u with the diphtong o 3 u 3 . Out of the 
number of poets, whose rhymes have been taken into con- 
sideration in the foregoing, Campbell and Macaulay are 
the only ones in whose poems no rhyme is to be chanced 
upon, corroborating the correctness of this case. With 
great precaution too this license is indulged in by Bryant, 
Rogers, Rob. Browning, Poe and others. Bryant has only 
once bound rhyming with the ivound (The Alcayde of Mol.). 
Rogers affords only two instances, bowed: glotved (Ode to 
Superst. 11, 1), and broiv: below (Hum. Life). Rob. 
Browning and Poe have *also the word broiv, the former 
rhyming with grow (Dis alit. vis.), the latter with knoiv 
(Al Araaf). Longfellow offers the rhymes hour: to loiver 



22 

(The children's hour) and brow: gloiv (The child asleep.). 
Keats: adoim: sivoon (Endym ), house: muse, how: know 
(Lamia), hours: implores (St. Agn. Eve IX), howl and 
foul: soul (ibid. X). Wordsworth: already in a more 
frequent number: boiver: floor (An evening walk), town: 
own and unknown (Guilt and sorrow XXIX, and The Poet's 
dream); the ivound: profound, round and froivned (The 
idle shepherd - boys , The pass of Kirkstone 1 ; Miscell. 
Sonnets Part 11, 1); broivn: flown (Her eyes are wild Vll); 
floiver: four (To the same flower); plough: low (At the 
Grave of Burns) power : door (Eccles. Sonnets Part 1, 36). 
— Burns : power : devour (Third Epist. to Rob. Graham), 
down: own, (Mary, Powers celest.), croivn: disoivn (Mark 
yonder pomp), broivn: floivn (The lazy mist) bound: the 
wound (The bonnie banks of Ayr). Tennyson further does 
not appear at all to shun such rhymes, exhibiting to brow 
and noiv the corresponding rhymes lotv, snow, below, go, 
know, to flower: pour, to poiver: door, to toivn: flown, 
to croivn and,, renown : own-, nay even to flower: bore and 
to house: close. Scott, comparatively seldom rhymes 
round with ownd (Last Minstr. II) loud with stood (ibid.), 
down with own (Marm. 11) and with stroivn (Rockeby 11), 
goivn with knoivn, and the ivound with profound, ground 
and round, now and then. Thomas Moore rhymes down 
with grown, blown and won often; the wound with round, 
found, resound, around] shower with pour, brou) with 
below, show, snow. Pelicia Hem an s rhymes now and 
brow with glow, flow, blow, low, snoiv (Last Constant LXX, 
ibid. LXXVII; Coeur-de-Lion at the b. of h. fath.; The 
Suliote Mother; The Deserted House; The Summer's 



23 

Call.), down with overt hroivn (The Cavern of the three 
Tells), bozving with throwing (Forest Sanct. XI). 

Coleridge does not appear to be fond of these rhymes, 
representing only the three words broiv, poiver and sound, 
the first rhyming with below, glow and go (Monody on 
the death of Chatt. Songs of the Pixies XII ; To the auth. 
of po. publ. anonym.), the second with more (Tell's Birth, 
place), and the last with the wound (Dejection.) 

Freely, on' the contrary, this license is indulged in 
by Elisab. Browning, in whose poems we find the following 
rhymes, showers: doors ; brow and now harmonizing to 
through, blow and gloiv frequently; doivn rhyming with 
alone, sun, upon, boon, own, stone, thrown, own; doubt, 
out and ivithout rhyming with thought, throat, foot ; mouth 
with youth, truth, sooth, forsooth, hour and power with 
slower; gown with moon, noon, sewn; thou with the bow 
(33ogen) ; drown with groan. — 

Shelley now and Byron utterly carry the prize in 
exhibiting an astonishing number of passages, by means 
of which this license may be regarded to form rather the 
rule. The former rhymes now, plough, bough, to bow, 
thou, how with ivoe , flow, below, go, ago, knoiv. low, 
bestow, overthroiv, also, blow, a&d even with you; — frown, 
town, down and crown with hioivn, alone, disown, throne, 
hereon, on, none, — croivd, cloud, aloud with flood, 
understood, abroad, showed, abode, god; — poiver and tower 
with sivore, floor, devour, bore; — ground and around 
with moand <nd ownd; — foul with sold; out with 
thought, sought, inwrought, not. 



24 

And last, not least, Byron: lough, Iroiv, to bow, 
now, endow, thou, how, plough, allow rhyme with below, 
Jcnoiv, glow, floiv, loiv, show, so, overthrow, blow, throw, 
woe, ago, sloiv, the bow (Sogert), snow, although, foe, 
a. s. o., — abound, sound, around, bound, ground, 
surround, found, eonfound, expound, surrounded with the 
wound, to ivound, ivoimded, swoon d; — foul with soid, 
hole, control, — mount, dismount and count with ivont 
and front; — hoiver, poiver, floiver, bower with slower, to 
lower, soar, pour, bestower, shore, more, door; — renown, 
droivn, crown, down, frown, town, gown, with grown, own, 
disown, shown, faiotvn, thrown, upthrown, groan, withdraivn, 
on, done, none, — shroud, cloud, alloivd with gloived; 
— mouth and south with youth, sooth, uncouth; ploughing 
with foioiving and showing. 

To cast now a sh^rt glance on the consonants following 
the rhyming vowels, and the incorrectness which may arise 
in a rhyme out of a difference of the consonants, there is 
to be remarked that, as a slight difference would not be 
able to call forth a striking incorrectness, there is hardly 
to lay great stress on a deviation, produced for instance 
by the correspondence of d and t at the end of the 
rhyming words; a case, moreover, not even frequently to 
he met with. Decreased: east, increased: feast and priest 
(Tennyson); increased: least (Byron Lara I, 29), ceased: 
east (ibid II. 19) released: feast (ibid. Mazeppa). — And 
since, in the whole for the sake of the peculiar sound of 
each consonant and its unaltered pronunciation, a slight 
variety would slip unheeded, a total want of uniformity, 
however, of course would spoil the rhyme altogether and 



25 

is avoided, therefore, by all possible means, we shall 
restrict ourselvet to mention only one license which seems 
to be more prominent by the greater neglect of actual 
pronouncing as well as by its more frequent occurrence, 
viz. the assimilating of the hissing sound c and ss to the 
more soft s and 0. The rhymes advice: otherwise, ice, 
flies, place: clans, face: gaze, peace: disease, these, seas, 
(Tennyson), cross: close, device: ivise (Scott), voice: boys, 
voice: joys, sacrifice, eyes (Longfellow), pieces: pleases, 
price: wise, apiece: ease, faces: praises (Byron), whose 
number it would be easy to enlarge, prove sufficienty that 
most of the modern poets have no great objection to this 
practice. 

Though the circumstance that the shown licenses 
unproportionably more are indulged in by one poet, less 
by another, though this circumstance must be imputed 
greatly to the productivity of the one and to the smaller 
number of rhymes of the other, yet the fact is incon- 
testable , that from the poets , who do not shrink from 
yielding to any kind of license whatever, Shelley, Byron 
and Scott are to be named in the first place ; Tennyson, 
Burns (of course are only those poems of his taken into 
consideration which avoid the Scotch dialect), Moore, Elis. 
Browning and Wordsworth, though more on the reserve, 
are not precisely cautious, yet more circumspeet than the 
former ; the same Poe in his few poems ; Bryant, however 
Longfellow, Coleridge, Campbell, Kogers, Keats, Bob. 
Browning, Macaulay proceed wdth a greater precaution 
and with a view that cannot be mistaken, to avoid if 
possible, every kind of rhyme, which by a greater disharmony 



26 

of sound would hurt the ear. Still, relying upon the 
rather frequent passages, in the poems of the first 
mentioned authors as well as in theirs, we may conclude, 
that there is actually no fault to be found with a rhyme 
whose constituent parts offer characters to the eye, whose 
sound may be the same and has perhaps been so some 
time ago. But agreeing that in the present century, in 
which the real pronuncing of the English language has 
undergone no considerable change, rhymes of such differences 
as has been proved, have been and still may be employed, 
we needs must grant that the task is far from being easy 
to recognize the pronouncing of former times out of the 
rhymes of poets then living, anticipating those poets of 
former times to be on even terms with the modern ones, 
and to have made use freely of their own licenses too. 



Yita 

Henricus Gustavus Bartling Cal. Jan. anni h. s. XL VI in 
pago prope Iserlohuum sito , cui Deilinghofen nonien est, 
natus sum patre Guilelmo, matre Aemilia e genteWoeste, 
quorum utrumque colo adhuc vivum. Fidei addictus sum 
evangelicae. Primis literarum elementis a parentibus 
instrtfctus quatuordecin anuos natus in quintam classem 
Gymnasii Arnoldini Burgsteinfurtensis quod floret directore 
Rhode wald traducfcus sum. Septem annis post vere anni 
LXVII cum testimonio maturitatis dimissus almam adii 
Berolinensem ibique philologiae studiis operam dare institui. 
Deinde Tubingam transmigravi ubi haud sine magno 
meorum studiorum fructu seminarii philologici fui sodalis; 
postremo Bonnam me contuli. Uniuscujusque harum aca- 
demiarum civis fui spatium anni. Auscultavi autem intra 
tres illos annos hos Tiros doctos: 

JBerolini: Haupt, v. Raumer, Trendelenburg, Geppert, 
Hassel, Steinthal, Tobler, Werder, Kirehhoff, 
Mommsen, Solly. Tubingae: v. Keller, Teuffel, 
Milner, Hirzel, Peschier. JBonnae: Delius, Mtiller, 
v. Eertling , Schaarsehmidt , Simrock , Knoodt, 
Heimsoeth 
Quibus viris omnibus optime de me meritis gratam semper 
servabo memoriam. 

Ex quo tempore litterarum sede discessi , magistri 
munere functus sum , ac primum quidem per biennium 
Arolsenae — quo in tempore in exploratione studiorum 
ita respondi ut facultate docendi dignum me praestiterim 
— turn Hagenae per annum , denique Barmenae abhinc 
hos XIII menses. 




Hollinger 

pH 8.5 

MiU Run P03-2193 




Hollinger 

pH &5 

Mill Run F03-2193 



